Has anyone ever taken their dog to an allergist or dermatologist?

My dog has always had allergies but this year they have been horrible. He's itchy all over and has pulled out most of the fur on the back half of his body. He's miserable and it's so sad to see him. My regular vet finally said there's not much more they can do for him at their office and referred me to an animal dermatology/allergy clinic. Has anyone ever taken their pet to one before? How much is it going to cost me? Were they able to help your pet?Has anyone ever taken their dog to an allergist or dermatologist?
Unfortunately allergies in dogs and cats as well can be the most difficult to find a cause for and also can be difficult to treat. The common causes of allergies in dogs include food allergies, atopy or hypersensitivity to normal things in the environment, and fleas. It is likely that the dermatologist will want to do allergy testing which may involve a blood sample as well as skin testing. At the clinic I currently work at a work-up usually cost between $400-$600. This work up consists of blood work, allergy skin testing, and take home medications. Depending on how severe and the cause of your dog's allergies your dog may need to be put on a medication called Atopica. This can be an expensive drug intially but based on how your dog responds to the drug the expense may only be short term. Also to consider in the expense is based on the results of the skin test and the blood test allergy your dermatologist may develop allergy vaccines for you to administer to your dog for a period of time. At the clinic I work at this cost approximately $30 dollars a month. As far as the success rate of these treatments it usually depends on what the cause is and how quickly the cause can be found. About 75% of dogs respond to allergy vaccines if their cause of allergies are due to hypersensitivity. Most dogs also may respond to the Atopica if the cause of the allergies are due to hypersensitivity but the drug does have side effects which are monitored with periodic bloodwork. If your dog allergies are determined to be due to food a special diet is usually in order and will be prescribed by the dermatologist as well. In my experience how well a dog does with allergies depends on how compliant the owner is and the cause of the allergies. But either way an improvement in the allergies can take some time usually weeks and sometime months to see some improvement. I wish you luckHas anyone ever taken their dog to an allergist or dermatologist?
It must be a bad allergy year for pets and humans. Our 12 yr. old husky had the exact same problem. His skin was fire engine red. I don't know how he walked because he pulled out all the hair around his crotch and down his front legs.





Here's what we do. First, he was diagnosed as having low thyroid function, so he is on meds for that. He was also on two rounds of antibiotic for his skin. He takes amitriptyline (an antidepressant) for his itching, and it helps him sleep at night. He is on a steroid spray until it is gone. We also give him fish oil-we break open the capsule and drizzle the oil on his food. All this has helped him enormously.





Check with your vet before you spend a lot of money on an animal dermatologist. See if this helps first. I hope for your dog's sake it does. Ours is much happier now, and so are we.





One more thing-we have him on Hill's Science Diet B/D. This is for older dogs. We don't give him any treats from the store. We get them from the vet.
my dogs never been, but my friends dog did. they do tests a lot like they do with people, where they test the skin and see how it reacts and then you find out what the dog is allergic to and what foods to avoid, things like that. i dont htink it was too expencive, but i think they might have also sent a blood sample out to be tested also which took a couple weeks. hope that helps!
I have but not for the same thing. Does he pull his fur off? How is the skin: pink, red, bloodish? After the fur is removed, does how is the skin: white and blood around it, yellow; if so the wounds got infected. Has he taken anything to stop this: hitamines (like the the ingridientes of claritin, zyrtec, benadril,etc.)?


Get your dermatologist to get a sample of this skin, where he hurts, half an inch per half an inch and have it send to the patologist; so you know if it's his auto-imune, allergy, fungus, etc.





You can test it for allegies and I hope you find what it is wrong with him. Bu I think that it is not an allergy, but a skin disease that hurtshim so much that the he wants to remove it. Dogs can stand pain much better than we do, It' can't be cancer, pennphigus?? (not sure about the spelling it's autoimune, makes them scratch or bleed but it's gone with a litlle drop cortisone)
no i never have

cream blush